Thinking without thinking in the Victorian novel /

This book is well grounded in both 19th-century and more recent ideas about cognition. Ryan (Brown) thoroughly explores the Victorian view that the individual's psyche is not a closed system but part of a dynamic process in which both the inner and outer worlds play key parts. Specifically, she explores Spenser's, Carpenter's, and Lewes's ideas about the development of the self and the working of memory, and persuasively shows how these ideas lead readers of Victorian novels such as Collins's The Moonstone, Meredith's One of Our Conquerors, and Eliot's Middlemarch and Romola to a deeper understanding of both individual characters and society. She sees the fascinating process of Eliot's characters' reconstruction of their past selves through memory--a process not based on conscious thought--as an integral part of their moral development. The focus on the question of what the Victorians saw as the mind and how that links to individual experience and choice adds welcome understanding of Victorian novels. Ryan deftly leads her reader through an array of ideas about the mind, ideas that include everything from physiological study to philosophical debates and materialist ideas. Ryan's writing is always clear, so even less experienced readers can benefit from her wisdom. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduate and graduate students, researchers/faculty. S. Bernardo Wagner College